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But what are we to understand by this Zeus with the garden
into which, we are told, Poros or Wealth entered? And what is the
garden?
We have seen that the Aphrodite of the Myth is the Soul and that
Poros, Wealth, is the Reason-Principle of the Universe: we have
still to explain Zeus and his garden.
We cannot take Zeus to be the Soul, which we have agreed is
represented by Aphrodite.
Plato, who must be our guide in this question, speaks in the
Phaedrus of this God, Zeus, as the Great Leader- though elsewhere
he seems to rank him as one of three- but in the Philebus he
speaks more plainly when he says that there is in Zeus not only a
royal Soul, but also a royal Intellect.
As a mighty Intellect and Soul, he must be a principle of Cause;
he must be the highest for several reasons but especially because
to be King and Leader is to be the chief cause: Zeus then is the
Intellectual Principle. Aphrodite, his daughter, issue of him,
dwelling with him, will be Soul, her very name Aphrodite [= the
habra, delicate] indicating the beauty and gleam and innocence
and delicate grace of the Soul.
And if we take the male gods to represent the Intellectual Powers
and the female gods to be their souls- to every Intellectual
Principle its companion Soul- we are forced, thus also, to make
Aphrodite the Soul of Zeus; and the identification is confirmed
by Priests and Theologians who consider Aphrodite and Hera one
and the same and call Aphrodite's star the star of Hera.
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